Libraries I've known

Lecture Series

Libraries I've Known Dr. Frank E. Vandiver One of America's foremost historians Author of numerous books Former President of Texas A&M University

Lecture Series

Q] The 2001 -2002 Carl Hertzog Award and Lecture were made possible through generous underwriting support from Dr. and Mrs. Charles Cavaretta R. B. Price Foundation/Mr. and Mrs. Jack Curlin Robert E. and Evelyn McKee Foundation Mr. and Mrs. Sam Moore, Jr. The Texas Center for The Book at the Dallas Public Library Mr. Robert Skimin El Paso Times El Paso Inc.

Copyright 速 2002 The University of Texas at El P aso El P aso, Texas 79968-0633

00

The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences.

-Permanence of Paper for printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1984

Published in June, 2002, in a printing limited to 500 copies.

TÍíe Cari 9-fertzog Lecture Seríes The Hertzog Lectures, inaugurated on February 5, 1989, and presented biennially in the month of his birth, honor the memory and life work of the "Printer at the Pass," J. Carl Hertzog (1902-1984).

A premier typographer and book designer long before his association with the University of Texas at El Paso, Mr. Hertzog brought his international renown to the then Texas Western College in 1948 and launched Texas Western Press in 1952, serving as its director until his retirement in 1972.

Books bearing the distinctive Carl Hertzog colophon reached a standard of excellence that is unexcelled to this day.

The University Library's Special Collections Department is the repository of the extensive Hertzog Collection of books and papers.

The Carl Hertzog Lectures and the biennial Carl Hertzog Award for Excellence in Book Design, are sponsored by the Friends of the University Library at the University of Texas at El Paso.

Texas Western Press

The University of Texas at El Paso

J. Carl Hertzog

1902- 1984

Libraries I've Known Dr. Frank E. Vandiver One of America's foremost historians Author of numerous books Former President of Texas A&M University

February 10, 2002

Carl Hertzog lecture series, no. 10

LIBRARIES I'VE KNOWN

By Frank E. Vandiver

As a kind of personal "thank you" to people and institutions who preserve documents, books, and now, taped interviews, let me tell some stories about a historian's wanderings in pursuit of original sources.

My earliest debt dates back to the 1940's, when I w as working on a biography of the Confederate Chief of Ordnance, General Josiah Gorgas. Bits and pieces of a diary were known; one piece touched on his experiences in the Mexican War, another on a trip he made to Europe in the 1840's. Rumor had it that he had continued the journal through his lifetime. I w ent looking for the rest of his diary. He died in Tuscaloosa, Ala., in the 1880's. Three of his daughters still lived in his old home there - the youngest was 84! So I c amped on their doorstep for two weeks - two weeks of gracious and strange entertaining. Each afternoon I was treated to a different "delicacy" ice cream drenched in sherry, ice cream and tomatoes, watermelon and wine.

Apparently I p assed the stomaching, for at last I w as sent upstairs to a round-top trunk crammed with Gorgas' letters. They were in folders and the first one was from General Lee concerning ordnance needs following Gettysburg. Letters from every Confederate army commander were in files; copies of Gorgas' replies were often attached. Correspondence and official documents to and from arsenals, armories, armies, the Bureau of Foreign Supplies, and Jefferson Davis were there in a trove to dazzle anyone. But 1 was disappointed" - no diary. I ha d taken all the papers out and stacked them on the floor by the trunk; as I s tarted to put them back in, I noticed a small piece of paper sticking up from the trunk bottom. I picked at it and a false bottom came up. There, spread out on the real bottom of the trunk were four volumes of Gorgas' diary, including the war years.

8 • Carl Hertzog lecture series

His daughters did not know of the diary; they, too, were thrilled. 1 later published an edited version of the war diary.

Working on Gorgas led me to the whole matter of blockade running, since the Ordnance Bureau relied heavily on England and Europe for arms, munitions and all kinds of stores were shipped to Bermuda, Nassau, and Cuba for trans-shipment to the Confederate States. A good deal of material on blockade running was available in the remarkable collection of Civil War documents: The Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies and the Official Records of the Union and the Confederate Navies. Vital gaps remained, especially accurate statistics on trans-shipment.

My mother and her family had often visited Bermuda when she was young and she encouraged me to try to find some material there. In 1946, she and I w ent to Bermuda and through a series of happy accidents, I f ound a man who had been a collector of the port of St. George's, where most of the blockade runners were based. He had found the cargo manifest of these fast, light draft vessels who dared the Union blockading fleets and had, at his own expense, built a bookcase to preserve them. He and the then collector of the port made the whole collection available and a bank in Hamilton made their microfilm machine available.

While working on the manifests, I w as directed to a Bermuda historian, William E. S. Zuill. He had done some kindnesses to a small shopkeeper in St. George's who at last sold him some old ledgers long kept on a store shelf. They were the letter books of John Tory Bourne, Confederate Agent in St. Georges, who did most of his business with the Ordnance Bureau. He also had a letter book from Major Smith Stansbury, who ran the Confederate Ordnance Office in St. Georges's. These, too, were microfilmed.

None of these essential records would have survived without the concerned interest of a few people with a sense of history. I am happy to say that these records are now preserved in a Confederate Museum in that old Bermuda town.

Libraries I've Known

• 9

Some of those records directed me to England and the Greenwood and Batley Iron Works in Leeds. That company had made ordnance machinery for Gorgas and kept its archives carefully preserved, even against Nazi bombers. They made copies of the correspondence and even provided pictures of the machines shipped to various Confederate arsenals and shops.

In Nassau, the Governor's Office opened an old, locked bookcase, where rumor had placed some records from the Civil War. The Governor's official letter books were there, along with records of the Nassau Admiralty Court, which disposed of many blockade-mnning cases. There, too, were records of several merchant companies doing business with various Confederate supply bureaus, including ordnance.

After finishing the Gorgas biography, I tu rned to the life of General Thomas J. ("Stonewall") Jackson. So prominent a figure generated all kinds of archival trails -1 was almost buried in material. But there were gaps, as always. A visit to the Henry E. Huntington Library in Pasadena, California in the early 1950's gave me an insight into how a splendidly managed book and archives collection can save history and historians.

There they let searchers use both books and documents at the same desk and time - a great convenience and one that led to another library connection, which I'll mention momentarily. First, though, let me say that one of the gaps in Jackson's career centered on a strange delay of his troops at a place called Grapevine Bridge in the Seven Days Battles around Richmond. Tucked away in the Jeb Stuart papers, I f ound a note from Stuart to Jackson conveying an order from Lee's Headquarters directing Stuart and Jackson to stay at the Bridge for a day until Union intentions had been fully developed.

While looking for Jackson material in the Jefferson Davis collection at the Huntington, I lo oked at original letters at the same time I lo oked at an early published edition of some of the letters. There were large gaps and distortions in print, and I to ok books and papers up to Allen Nevins' office (he was the scholar in residence.) From that moment, a

10 • Carl Hertzog lecture series

new Papers of Jefferson Davis project began. This project, centered at Rice University, has published nine volumes of Davis letters and papers and has reached the year 1863. Huntington's liberality in usage deserves wide emulation.

Jackson finished, 1 turned to a study of Confederate General Jubal Early's famous raid on Washington in 1864. Two sources were essential in making Early's activities both understandable and interesting. One was the diary of Major Jedediah Hotchkiss, who had been Jackson's Chief Topographical Engineer, and who went with Early on the campaign to Washington. His daily entries located campsites, actions, people, and places with uncanny accuracy, and his sense of ground lent reality to reconstructed events. The other source, a manuscript reminiscence kept by Lucius Chittenden of Washington, provided an eyewitness view of the Confederate attack on Fort Stevens in rich detail. That source came to me through the eagle-eyed kindness of the late Professor Bell Wiley, who spotted it in a bookseller's catalogue. I b ought it, deposited a copy in the Rice Library and have made it available to others. Again, booksellers and prospective buyers collaborated in important preservation.

My next project was a biography of General John J. Pershing, commander of the American Expeditionary Force in World War I. Now truly inundated in all kinds of new materials - news reels, photos of all times and places in his life, audio records - I st ill found gaps. Always interested in personal vignettes, I l ooked for letters or journals of his staff- men who could give a close insight into the way he worked and lived. And I h ad a chance to talk to his son, Warren, and several other men and women who had known him.

Pershing had published his memoirs of the war in 1931 and won the Pulitzer Prize for history that year. But Warren directed me to a journal of his father's early life, which provided splendid data on his Cuban and Philippine experiences and his service as military observer in the Russo-Japanese War. A chance conversation in Houston led to hearing a personal account of the fire that claimed Pershing's wife and three daughters at the San Francisco Presidio in 1915; another chance

Libraries I've Known

• 11

conversation with Gen. S.L.A. Marshall produced an account of how Marshall, then a newsman, had accidentally told Pershing the story of the fire, thinking he was telling an aide.

But the main archival discovery came with a tip from a Mississippi archivist that sent me to Yazoo City to the home of a Mrs. Quekemeyer. She had all the letters and memorabilia of her son, George, who had been on Pershing's personal staff in France and who wrote her several letters a week, filled with the daily details of headquarters life and the General's doings. These letters were the best source I fo und on Pershing's direct actions and thoughts during the war. They were in a cedar trunk, carefully wrapped with medals and bits of uniforms. I u rged George's mother to put the whole collection in a library or the state archives and she promised to do so.

Next, I tu rned to Vietnam and went to work on Shadows of Vietnam, Lyndon Johnson's Wars. Inundated with material, I still found gaps.

This time, aided by the marvelous people and resources of the LBJ Library, I go t deeply into oral history accounts. But an old friend made available a diary and letters from her husband who was killed in Vietnam. They were wonderful - love letters, a warrior's letters, the diary of a compassionate man who cared for the villagers he went to help. I've seen no other source as poignant or as graphic - they gave a special depth to the book.

All my research stories aim to make a point - I'm one who is permanently indebted to archivists, librarians, and all who save documents, newspapers, books, tapes, videos, films, records, and memorabilia - all the grist of history. When the past is lost, so is part of the future. Carl Hertzog knew that and knew, too, that the past will cast better lessons if preserved in artful ambiance.

12 • Carl Hertzog lecture series

Dr. Frank E. Vandiver

One of America's foremost historians Author of numerous books Former President of Texas A&M University

Libraries I've Known

• 13

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH DR. FRANK E. VANDIVER VANDIVER, FRANK EVERSON, institute administrator, former university president, author, educator; b. Austin, Tex., Dec. 9, 1925; s.

Harry Shultz and Maude Folmsbee (Everson) V.; m. Carol Sue Smith, Apr. 19, 1952 (dec. 1979); children: Nita, Nancy, Frank Alexander; m. Rene Aubry, Mar. 21, 1980. Rockefeller fellow in humanities, U. Tex., 1946-47, Rockefeller fellow in Am. Studies, 1947-48, MA 1949; phD, Tulane U., 1951; MA (by decree), Oxford (Eng.) U., 1963; HHD (hon.), Austin Coll., 1977; DHL (hon.), Lincoln Coll., 1989, BA (hon.), 1994. Apptd. Historian Army Service Forces Depot, Civil Service, San Antonio, 1944-45, Air U., 1951; prof. History La. State U., summers 1953-57; asst. prof. History Washington U., St. Louis, 1952-55; asst. prof. History Rice U., Houston, 1955-56, assoc. prof., 1956-58, prof., 1958-65; Harris Masterson Jr. prof. History, 1965-79, chmn. Dept. history and polit. Sci., 1962-63, dept. history, 1968-69, acting pres., 1969-70, provost, 1970-79, v.p. 1975-79; pres., chancellor N. Tex. State U., Denton and Tex. Coll. Osteo. Medicine, 1979-81; pres. Tex. A&M U., College Station, 1981-88, pres.

Emeritus, disting. U. prof. 1988-; founding pres. Acad. Marshall Plan, 1992; Sara and John Lindsey chair in humanities , 1988; Harmsworth prof. Am. History Oxford U., 1963-64; vis. prof, history U. Ariz., summer 1961; master Margarett Root Brown Coll., Rice U., 1964-66; Harman lectr. Air Force Acad. 1963; Keese lectr. U. Chattanooga, 1967; Fortenbaugh lectr. Gettysburg Coll., 1974; Phi Beta Kappa assoc. lectr., 1970—, vis. Prof. Mil. History U.S. Mil. Acad., 1973-74; hon. Pres. Occidental U., St. Louis, 1975-80; chmn. bd. Am. U. Cairo, 1992—-; '97; acting president, the American University in Cairo, 1997-1998, Editor: the Civil War Diary of General Josiah Gorgas, 1947; Confederate Blockade Running Through Bermuda, 1981-65: Letters and Cargo Manifests, 1947; Proceedings of First Confederate Congress, 4 th Session, 1953; Proceedings of Second Confederate Congress, 1959; A Collection of Louisiana Confederate Letters', new edit., J.E. Johnston s Narrative of Military Operations', new edit., J.A. Early's Civil War Memoirs, The Idea of the South, 1964; Battlefields and Landmarks of the Civil War, 1996; author: Ploughshares Into Swords: Josiah Gorgas and the Confederate Command System, 1956;

14 • Carl Hertzog lecture series

Mighty Stonewall, 1957; Fields of Glory, (with W. H. Nelson), 1960; Juhal's Raid, 1960; Basic History of the Confederacy, 1962; Jefferson Davis and the Confederate State, 1964; Their Tattered Flags; The Epic of the Confederacy, 1970; The Southwest: South and West?, 1975; Blackjack: The Life and Times of John J. Pershing, 1977 (Nat. Book Award Finalist 1978); (address) The Long Loom of Lincoln, 1986; Blood Brothers: A Short History of the Civil War, 1992; Shadows of Vietnam: Lyndon Johnson's Wars, 1997; 1001 Things Everyone Should Know About the Civil War, 1999; also hist, articles, mem. bd. editors: U.S. Grant Papers, 1973 -. Mem. bd. trustees Am. U. in Cairo, 1988, chmn., 1992 —. Recipient Laureate Lincoln Acad., 111., 197 3, Carr P. Collins prize Tex. Inst. Letters, 1958, Harry S. Truman award Kansas City Civil War Round Table, Jefferson Davis award Confederate Meml. Lit. Soc., 1970, Fletcher Pratt award N.Y. Civil War Round Table, 1970, Outstanding Civilian Svc. medal Dept.

Army, 1974, Nevins-Freeman award Chgo. Civil War Round Table, 1982, T. Harry Williams Meml. Award, 1985; named Hon. Knight San Jacinto, 1993, Hon. Mem. Sons of Republic of Tex., 1986; rsch. grantee Am. Philos. Soc., 1953, 54, 60 Huntington Libr. rsch. grantee, 1961; Guggenheim fellow, 1955-56. Fellow Tex. Hist. Assn.; Am. Hist. Assn., So. Hist. Assn. (assoc. editor jour. 1959-62, pres. 197576), Tex. Inst. Letters (past pres.), Jefferson Davis Assn. (pres., chmn. adv. bd. editors of papers), Soc. Am. Historians (councillor), Tex. Philos. Soc. (pres. 1978), Civil War Round Table (Houston), Orgn.

Am. Historians, Phi Beta Kappa, SAR of Tex. (hon., Knight San Jacinto 1993). Clubs: Cosmos, Army and Navy (Washington); Briarcrest Country (College Station). Office: Tex A&M U Mosher Inst. Intemat. Policy Studies College Station TX 77843-2400 (409) 845-5100.

November 2001

Libraries I've Known

• 15

Sara T. Sauers 2001-2002 Recipient of the Carl Hertzog Award for Excellence in Book Design Title:

No Shortcuts: An essay on wood engraving

Author:

Barry Moser

Publisher:

University of Iowa Center for the Book, Iowa City, 2001

Printer:

Sara T. Sauers

16 • Carl Hertzog lecture series

Remarks by: Sara T. Sauers Thank you. 1 am greatly honored to receive this award and honored to be here for this Carl Hertzog Centennial Celebration.

While 1 am, of course, very, very proud to have been the designer of No Shortcuts, 1 am especially proud to have printed it. It h as special meaning to receive this award named in honor of a man who was not only a remarkable book designer, but also a fine printer.

In preparation for my visit here, I r ead Al Lowman's book, Printer at the Pass: The Work of Carl Hertzog, which is a catalog of Hertzog's work that includes many interesting and revealing comments by Hertzog about his work. I particularly admired his comments on the making of Morelos of Mexico: Priest, Soldier, Statesman. Hertzog tells of searching for images to use in the book, a process that became collaborative among author, editor, illustrator, and designer. After Hertzog had finished printing Morelos, the author, Wilbert Timmons, rushed into Hertzog's office with yet another idea for an illustration, asking, "Is it too late to add something?" Not only did Hertzog find a place for the image late in the book's production, he took the time to print it in three colors because he knew that's what was called for.

Hertzog said of this experience, "The POINT is: this could never have happened in streamlined book production where the publisher never sees the designer, who doesn't know the author, who doesn't talk to the illustrator. But, in a small operation, where we all get to talk to each other, ideas creep in and they are appropriate."

That comment well sums up my experience in making No Shortcuts.

When you live with a book for two years, as I di d with this one, appropriate ideas do creep in. The author of No Shortcuts, Barry Moser, continued to add to his essay even after it had been set in metal type. That additional material developed into the book's gloss notes and typeset, and printed nearly a year after the main body of the text.

Libraries I've Known

• 17

There aren't many academic settings where this style of bookmaking still takes place, but the Center for the Book at the University of Iowa is one of them. Their graduate program includes classes in Letterpress Printing, Typography, Bookbinding, Papermaking, and Calligraphy. Students also study the history of the book and even posit its future in the digital age. It is a special environment, and I a m pleased to have been able to design and print this book for them.

In closing, I'd like to thank the Friends of the University Library for honoring the often unrecognized field of book design, and for continuing to honor the legacy of Carl Hertzog, someone we should all know more about up North.

18 • Carl Hertzog lecture series

Sara T. Sauers is studying publication design at the University of Iowa where she will receive her MA in Journalism and a Graduate Certificate in Book Arts and Studies in December 2002. She has a B.S. in Geology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In addition to designing and printing No Shortcuts by Barry Moser for the University of Iowa Center for the Book, she has designed The Complete Poetry of James Hearst for the University of Iowa Press.

Currently she is designing Georgics, a book of poetry by Michael J. Rosen, which will be published under her own letterpress imprint, Catstep Press. She is employed as Promotions Manager at the University of Iowa Press.

Libraries I've Known • 19

Carl Hertzog lecture series

Carl Hertzog lecture series, no. 10

2002